First Nations meet mired in chaos as Atleo's future hangs in balance

CN talking with protesters over plans to block trains today

Ontario chiefs threaten more disruption in province Jan. 16

Chiefs threaten AFN boss Sean Atleo with no confidence vote

OTTAWA — A meeting scheduled between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper was mired in chaos and confusion this morning, amid conflicting demands and claims from chiefs and new threats of road and rail blockades.

Shawn Atleo’s leadership as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations also appears to be on the line as chiefs demanded that he boycott the talks.

As arguments heated up over the form the meeting should take, protesting Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence emerged today from the teepee in which she has been undertaking a month-long liquid diet to talk about the hardships native Canadians face and urged the government to “renew” the relationship.

She was briefly interrupted by shouting as she tried to make a statement. A spokesperson said she would take no questions.

Spence, in a rambling but defiant statement, decried the devolution of power in Canada from the Crown to the prime minister, and suggested the news media were misleading Canadians. A spokesperson said she would continue her protest.

A number of aboriginal leaders are siding with the protesting chief and planning to boycott the Friday meeting between Harper and the Assembly of First Nations, as unrest grows among aboriginals and relations with the federal government continue to sour.

Protests were planned across Canada Friday as part of the Idle No More movement to coincide with the AFN’s meeting in Ottawa with the prime minister and a couple of cabinet ministers — following a day of drama Thursday among First Nations chiefs and a week that has catapulted aboriginal issues onto the national stage.

Questions also continue to emerge about Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo’s leadership, with a number of chiefs saying they stand with Spence in refusing to participate in Friday’s meeting with Harper unless Governor-General David Johnston also attends.

“The Assembly of (First Nations) as a great organization hangs in the balance. More critically, lives are at stake,” one northern Ontario chief, Isadore Day, wrote in an emotional letter to Atleo.

“I implore you to stop this meeting with the PM.”

“We need to meet with the Prime Minster and Governor-General of Canada together and ensure that fairness at the table. The attitudes and treatment towards our Indigenous Peoples needs to change with this current government. We can no longer have a paternalistic relationship and be dictated to,” Spence said earlier Friday in a statement.

The Governor-General has agreed to host the chiefs later Friday, at a separate ceremonial meeting, following the talks with Harper.

Day and other provincial chiefs, however, are reportedly threatening to hold a non-confidence vote if Atleo attends today’s meeting.

Ontario Grand Chief Gordon Peters also said protesters were planning fresh road and rail blockades on major transportation corridors in the province on Jan. 16 if the government does not meet their demands.

Canadian National also says it is talking with aboriginal organizers in Nova Scotia over their plans to block trains running between Halifax and Truro today.

Chief Bob Gloade of Millbrook First Nation says the blockade of passenger and freight trains is planned as part of Idle No More protests across the country.

Gloade says the blockade was scheduled on Millbrook First Nation land between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

CN spokesman Jim Feeny says the usual process in similar blockades has been to hold talks with aboriginal groups in an effort to keep lines open.

Gloade says the blockade is sanctioned by the band council and is part of a growing wave of protests and blockades organized by the Idle No More movement.

Atleo made an impassioned speech late Thursday to a room full of about 200 chiefs at a downtown Ottawa hotel, praising the protesters and saying that he would press the government on treaty rights and for a better revenue sharing model for resource development.

While Atleo is still planning to meet Harper, he said he wouldn’t dictate which First Nations leaders should go to the meeting. Atleo said he was ready to take a hard stand with the Harper government if it failed to provide tangible results for First Nations communities.

AFN regional Chief Perry Bellegarde — one of the leaders initially scheduled to meet with Harper on Friday inside the building housing the Prime Minister’s Office — said late Thursday he will not attend the talks and stands in solidarity with Spence and other leaders about the need for the Governor-General to attend the meeting.

In speech after speech Thursday night, chiefs from across the country declared their support for Spence and demanded the prime minister and Governor-General both attend the meeting.

“If the AFN decided to go to that meeting against the will and decision of the chiefs, then the AFN would no longer be a valid representative organization of the chiefs,” said Pam Palmater, the Ryerson University professor who was Atleo’s chief rival in last summer’s national chief elections.

“Atleo has no choice but to listen to the chiefs, because he has no independent political authority,” she added.

Chiefs are demanding the federal government respect long-standing treaty rights, create a new agreement on natural resource development and revenue sharing, and revisit contentious federal government legislation, including the Indian Act.

The tough talk and emotional pleas threatened to scuttle progress at a meeting that was hastily arranged after Harper agreed to it one week ago.

Chiefs from Manitoba had taken a hard line on how the meeting should be structured, saying that a face-to-face with Harper wasn’t enough: they insisted the Governor General had to attend as well.

Sharp divisions were evident as up to 200 chiefs gathered at the hotel Thursday evening.